Just Good Shit: 02.21.22

I wasn’t feeling well over this three-day weekend, so I spent most of it knitting and watching Real Housewives of New Jersey Season 4, which, combined with Season 3, is truly some of the best television — and certainly the best reality television — I’ve ever seen. The drama feels real, the brawls feel earned, and every goddamn line is a banger. I thought Succession was the best example of modern-day Shakespeare, but RHONJ certainly feels like one of his lesser-known plays. Season 3 opens with a brawl at christening (!!), where there’s ~150 guests and a prominently-displayed oil painting of the baby (Joey — there are so many baby Joeys) wearing a tiny newsboy cap. The whole two-season arc is pure camp and I’m fully obsessed.

Here’s what else I got up to this week…

Reading

The Millions of People Stuck in Pandemic Limbo, The Atlantic.

The Moral Danger of Declaring the Pandemic Over Too Soon, NYT. (gift link)

“The lesson of the AIDS pandemic is that it’s easy to leave people behind, even if it is at the cost of our collective peril.”

27 Years in Solitary Confinement, Then Another Plea for Help in Texas, NYT. (gift link)

We are deeply and profoundly sorry: For decades, The Baltimore Sun promoted policies that oppressed Black Marylanders; we are working to make amends, Baltimore Sun.

The Crankification Engine, Gawker.

How Bosco Sticks Became the Secret Weapon of Midwestern Cafeterias, Eater.

Have a great week! 🍝

Get this post each week in newsletter format.

🍑